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The Clothed Avatar: Virtual Bodies in Latex Catsuits

Estimated reading time: 1 minutes — With every iPhone & Google glass we are inexorably drawn into the fantasy, fetish world of cyborg technology. We lust for this technology. — But we are afraid of it. — As we go deeper into high tech our desire simultaneously drives us deeper into the high touch experiences […]

Humans scanned and rasterized in the virtual world of Tron. Avatars longing to be made flesh. The virtual slams up against the corporeal.

Fetish

Latex.
Rubber.
The Catsuit.

When did fetish wear become mainstream clothing? Why do we see an endless stream of celebrities in skintight apparel once reserved for taboo fantasies? Is it a coincidence these erotic fashions are mainstream here in our 21st century moment? Or is it because of our 21st century moment?

Fantasy

With every iPhone. With every Google glass. Inexorably. We are drawn into a fantasy now world. It also is a fetishistic world. But a very different fetish. Cyborg fetish. Our technology seems to suggest that we are leaving the corporeal body behind. We obsess over this technology. We lust for it. We can’t get it fast enough.

But we are afraid of it.

In Tomb Raider the circle of fetish and fantasy is complete. Angelina Jolie, a physical person, a “fleshvatar” if you will, pretends to be Lara Croft, an avatar in a catsuit.

Like Eve and that impossible apple we fear that the technology of our desire is also the technology of our destruction. We long to lose ourselves in an orgy of technology. Yet we simultaneously hunger to define our individual bodies. Through hours at the gym. Through pec and breast and butt implants. Through injections of every kind. More and more we immerse in the vortex of technology. More and more we crave the touch of corporeality.

No wonder fetish wear is now day wear.

Plastic Reality

Where can the clothed body be experienced at its most dramatic? In the clothed avatar. In more virtual worlds than can ever be counted we upload ourselves, like Flynn in Tron, into worlds of pixels and polygons and avatar bodies. At the nexus of high tech and high touch is the clothed avatar body. As in RL, the VR avatar longs for the sensuality of shiny, instantiated, corporeal clothing. Clothing that makes the paradoxical “physical” presence of a “virtual” body tactile and real.

Is an avatar in a catsuit any more of a fantasy than a fleshvatar in a catsuit?

The Clothed Avatar

Today RL and VR are both filled with fetish fashion. With shiny plastic clothing. With latex catsuits. IRL we find designers like Syren, Ectomorph, Bondinage, Catfish Clothing, Tatjana Warnecke, Mother of London and others. In VR the names are different but the aesthetics map back and forth. In VR we experience designers like Madame Couturier, Elixir, Jackie Graves, Eclectic Randomness, Powers of Creation and others.

Here then is my latex catsuit fashion show on the catwalk of a virtual opium dream. Join me…

My transformation to pale white skin under shiny black rubber complete, I head down to Trilby Minotaur’s opium den in virtual Amsterdam only to discover just how low my tolerance for opium is. I’m an avatar down a rabbit hole. A traveler in a dream. An adventurer on an unknown journey.

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Latex catsuit and latex corset by Syren.

Latex catsuit and corset by Bondinage.

Tatjana Warnecke created this catsuit / pressure suit for celebs who want to be totally stylish even in the asphyxiating atmospherelessness of Moonbase Alpha.

From Mother of London here’s the ultimate kevlar catsuit2.0. It features a kevlar hexcel underlayer and a carbon fiber exoframe. With this catsuit you’re ready to seduce a third world dictator by day, take out his naval base by nite, and still be ready for breakfast with your friends.

HAIR, MAKEUP & SKIN CARE:
I try to use as many Ben Nye products as possible when I have these occasional makeup orgies. The guy invented pretty much everything. I try to honor that. And not to be bratty, but hair this long and full can be a lot of work. Embracing volume without turning into a rat’s nest is a project! Of course I only let José Eber touch my hair.
The role of Ben Nye was played by Eloh Eliot; the role of José Eber was played by Carina Larsen.
• Ben Nye
• Eloh Eliot
• José Eber
• Carina Larsen

About Lizzy Bowman

I grew up in Friday Harbor, WA, and went to school at UBC Vancouver where I received a BSN in 2003. Now I'm a nurse at Children & Women's Health Center of BC. I wish I could tell you I went clubbing every night after work, but those days are pretty much behind me. My boyfriend is a bit of a gamer, but I'm not fond of battles & killing stuff, so I rarely join him. Sometimes I play Second Life instead: it's fun to unleash my inner cheerleader! :)
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